


Sock on the Door

by Migmog



Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Astrid needs sleep, Awkward Early Stages of Dating, Confessions, Cuddling & Snuggling, Despite the title no actual smut occurs on screen, Established Relationship, Exam stress is a bitch, F/M, Fluff, Hiccup is such a simp, Humor, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, It pains me that I can't spell it Humour, Kissing, New Relationship, One Shot, Ruffnut is a bad roommate, Sharing Clothes, Sharing a Bed, Star Wars References, Tea, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, You guys there was only one bed, but I think that's endearing, i don't know how to tag, let her rest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-05
Updated: 2020-11-05
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:48:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27403795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Migmog/pseuds/Migmog
Summary: Finally, Astrid makes it to her floor. With a sigh of relief, she pushes through the door to her hallway and heads towards Room 83, already aching for her bed.She freezes ten feet from the door.There’s a sock on the door knob.A neon pink, zebra print sock hanging from the door knob of the only thing standing between her and her bed.No. Not tonight. She can’t have—A loud grunt sounds from inside her room, followed by an even louder and more obscene moan.Oh my god. This could not be happening.Or: Astrid comes home after a long day of studying to find her dorm room is occupied. Desperate for sleep and on the verge of a stress-fuelled breakdown, she calls her new boyfriend Hiccup begging for a place to stay. Awkwardness, hilarity and cavity-inducing fluff ensue.
Relationships: Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III/Astrid Hofferson
Comments: 14
Kudos: 166





	Sock on the Door

**Author's Note:**

> I have no idea what to write here but I like author's notes and I'm always sad when people don't use them so I guess I'll give it a shot!
> 
> So even though I've been writing fanfic for a while now this is the first time I've ever been happy enough with something to publish it. It's likely that no one but my two friends on archive will read this but I just wanted to post something so here, have this beautiful trash! I'm actually really proud of this silly, adorable little one shot, so I hope it makes you smile as much as I did while I wrote it.
> 
> I want to thank [Floralfatality](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Floralfatality/pseuds/Floralfatality) and [honestpebble](https://archiveofourown.org/users/honest_pebble/pseuds/honest_pebble) for beta reading this and giving me the most hilarious reactions and wonderful feedback. You guys make me want to keep writing stuff and ultimately got me into fandom and fanfiction in the first place. None of this would exist without them and I love them very very much. Please, go check them out because they both write incredible stuff! (way better than mine)
> 
> Okay, I think that's all there is to say sooooo... Hope you enjoy!

By the time Astrid makes it back to her dorm it’s well past midnight and she feels like she’s about to pass out from sheer, soul-crushing exhaustion. If midterms don’t kill her, these fucking stairs will. Whoever thought it was a good idea to make sleep-deprived students with eight ton backpacks walk up six flights of stairs to get to their dorm rooms will live to regret the day they were born if Astrid ever gets her hands on them. 

After eight hours spent hunched over her textbooks in the library, she’s not even sure she’ll make it to her floor before she collapses halfway up the stairs, sprawled like a murder victim. All she wants to do is curl up in her bed and catch a few hours of fitful sleep, dreaming all night long about failing her exams and having to retake the year, before her alarm goes off at 6 AM and she has to do it all over again.

Finally, she makes it to her floor. With a sigh of relief, she pushes through the door to her hallway and heads towards Room 83, already aching for her bed. She freezes ten feet from the door. 

There’s a sock on the door knob. 

A neon pink, zebra print sock hanging from the door knob of the only thing standing between her and her bed. 

_No. Not tonight. She can’t have—_

A loud grunt sounds from inside her room, followed by an even louder and more obscene moan. 

_Oh my god. This could not be happening._

It took all her strength to stop herself from screaming bloody murder at the door. 

All day she’d been working towards this moment. The part of the day where she would get to leave her studying behind for the night and collapse in the safety of her dorm room. Instead she was here, banished from the comfort of her own room while her roommate fucked a stranger three feet from her bed. Oh god, she might even be fucking them _on_ her bed. The thought is so repulsive that she has to channel her disgust into anger. She kicks the nearest wall with a frustrated grunt, leaving a dent in the skirting board. 

Fuck Ruffnut. She knows how hard Astrid’s been working, how important these exams are for her to keep her scholarship. How much she needs their room to be a place she can rest between days of stress and worry. She should never have agreed to room with her this year. She’d signed up to another year in the dorms primarily to save money, but she thought at least it would be fun living with one of her closest friends. Somehow she’d conveniently forgotten that Ruffnut was also one of her horniest friends. 

Angry and exhausted she slumps against the wall and slides to the floor. Her bag falls by her side with a thud and she cradles her head in her hands, feeling like she’s about to have an absolute meltdown if she doesn’t get to go to bed right this second. 

She reaches desperately for solutions. Maybe she can nap on the couches in the common room? The thought is almost as repulsive as opening the door and interrupting whatever disturbing thing is going on in there right now. Those couches have been accommodating every type of student under the sun for at least twenty years and look as though no one ever once thought to clean them. 

She considers just sitting here in the hallway and waiting it out but God knows how long that could take with Ruffnut’s stamina, and even if they do finish up soon she’s not sure she wants to walk in on the aftermath of that horror show. Besides she’ll never get a good night’s sleep with Ruff keeping her up til 3am describing the entire interaction in gory detail. She should know, it’s happened more than once. 

Finally an idea pops into her head. It’s not great, but she’s so desperate that she just acts on impulse. She pulls out her phone and taps through to Hiccup’s contact. He answers on the second ring. 

‘Astrid?’ He mumbles, he sounds sleep-fogged and confused. 

‘Did I wake you?’ she says, brushing her bangs out of her face as she rests her head against the wall. 

‘Uh no, no, I was up.’ He attempts to sound wide awake but the tell tale click of a bedside light gives him away. 

She rolls her eyes. ‘Liar.’ 

He huffs a quiet laugh and she hears him shuffle to sit up. The sound of his covers moving makes a noise like static through the phone. 

‘What’s up?’ he says softly. ‘Everything ok?’ 

She exhales a shaky breath, feeling anger and exhaustion boiling to the surface. 

‘Can I come over?’ 

The other end of the line stays quiet for a second too long. She worries that she’s crossed some kind of relationship line too soon. They’ve only been dating for a couple of weeks. She’s never even stayed over at his place, and now it sounds like she’s woken him up for a late night booty call. 

‘Uh sure, I Uh- I-I guess that would be-‘ he coughs, and she cringes. She’s definitely crossed a line. 

‘Actually, forget it,’ she says, cutting him off. _Shit,_ she mouths to an empty hallway. 

A loud moan erupts from the other side of the door. Loud enough that Hiccup definitely hears it. 

‘Jesus Christ,’ she grumbles, feeling a mixture of embarrassment and disgust. She is so going to make Ruff suffer for this. 

‘What the heck was that?’ Hiccup says, his voice pitching in shock and confusion. If he wasn’t awake before he definitely is now. 

‘God.’ She feels her face turning beet red. ‘That’s my roommate. I, uh, I can’t exactly go into my room right now.’ 

‘Oh.’ He pauses and then ‘Oh!’ Understanding seems to dawn in his voice. ‘Oh my god,’ he says, sounding utterly mortified. 

‘I know. That’s why I called.’ She pushes herself up and grabs her backpack, slinging it over one shoulder as she makes her way down the hall. Anything to get further away from the noise. 

‘Listen,’ she says with a heavy sigh, feeling the weight of her bag dragging her down. ‘I know it’s late so I’ll just go wait somewhere else until she’s, um, done. You go back to sleep. I’m sorry I bothered you.’ 

‘No! No! You should come over!’ 

She stops dead, shoes scuffing the carpet. ‘Really?’ 

‘Yes, definitely! I don’t want to leave you all stranded and traumatised. You must be exhausted. Haven’t you been studying all day?’ 

She feels a sudden wave of emotion overcome her. Maybe it’s the exhaustion or the stress, but just the fact that he knew she’d been studying all day makes her heart ache. He knows how tired and stressed she is with her exams looming over her, and on top of that he’s offering to let her crash at his place when she’s just woken him up in the middle of the night. She’s so touched that she actually starts to tear up. God, it must be the exhaustion. She never cries this easily. 

‘Y-yes,’ she says. Her voice wobbles and suddenly the tears are coming and she can’t stop them. 

‘Ok, do you- do you have your car or...’ his words tail off as she begins to sniff down the phone. She slaps a tear off her face almost violently, willing her tear ducts to dry up immediately, or else. 

‘Are you- are you crying?’ he says incredulously. 

‘No!’ She snaps, clearly crying. 

‘I’ve never heard you cry before,’ he says with a mixture of awe and disbelief. 

‘And you still haven’t, asshole,’ she half-yells, hackles raised. 

He laughs, caught between amusement and fear. 

‘And yes, I have my car,’ she adds, still sounding defensive and angry. ‘I’m coming over.’ 

She hangs up before he can reply, not wanting to spend another second crying over the phone. With one last venomous look towards the offensive sock hanging from her bedroom door, she kicks the stairwell door open and prepares to walk back down all six flights, wiping hot angry tears roughly from her cheeks. 

Hiccup’s apartment is just a short drive away, nestled in the centre of downtown Berk. Her tears have dried up by the time she pulls into a parking space, leaving her face puffy and red. Great, her first time staying over at her boyfriend’s and she looks like a fucking spicy Cheeto. 

She attempts to fix her face and hair in the rear view mirror but without any make-up or a hairbrush on hand it’s a lost cause. She huffs, defeated, and clicks the light off, pushing the car door open and stepping out onto the wet pavement. At least it isn’t raining. Earlier today it had been pouring down, the wind howling as rain pelted the library windows so hard they rattled. Just a typical day in Berk. 

She hops up the steps to his apartment building. The antiquated buzzer makes a pitiful noise as she presses it. Pulling her fleece-lined coat tighter around her body, she waits, shivering against the cold weather. An answer comes almost immediately. 

‘Hey!’ She jerks back as Hiccup’s voice crackles too loud through the crappy speakers. ‘Come on in!’ The intercom clicks off and he buzzes her in. 

She can’t help but smile. He sounds so genuinely happy that she’s here, despite the fact that she just yelled at him over the phone like a complete psycho. She’ll never fully understand why a sweet guy like Hiccup is dating someone like her. 

She pushes through the now unlocked door and wonders how the hell this slab of flimsy wood even keeps people out. She feels like she could break it down easily. 

Before she’s even at the top of the stairs he’s already waiting for her, standing with the door open in a pair of plaid pyjama bottoms and an ancient lord of the rings T-shirt, his hair adorably bed-mussed. She remembers Ruff once called her a ‘dork-sexual’: exclusively and enthusiastically attracted to nerds. She might find it funny how accurate that is in this moment if she didn’t currently want to strangle Ruff with her bare hands. 

His face lights up when their eyes meet and she can’t suppress the soppy smile that takes over her face. Even though they’ve been friends for over a year she still feels giddy at the prospect of seeing him, like a love-struck teenager on prom night. It’s a little humiliating, especially when other people notice. Their so-called friends have been teasing them both even more relentlessly than usual since they officially got together. Sometimes she hates how doe-eyed she gets around him. The complete vulnerability of being unable to control herself makes her intensely uncomfortable, and yet it’s also one of the best feelings in the whole world. 

After months of dancing around each other, not quite knowing if their relationship would ever be anything more, it’s crazy how they can still experience the excitement and trepidation of a new relationship. It’s like they’ve put on dating goggles and suddenly everything looks different, new challenges and opportunities popping up all the time. At least she gets to walk through these awkward stages with her best friend. There’s no one else she’d rather go all mushy over. 

At least now, while no one’s watching she can fully give in to all the gooey feelings bubbling up inside of her, secure in the knowledge that Hiccup is just as gooey about her. 

‘Hey,’ he says, keeping his voice down for the neighbours. 

Instead of answering she strides forward and crashes into him. He lets out a soft ‘oof’ as they collide and reflexively wraps his arms around her. She buries her face into the crook of his neck, breathing in the comforting smell of Hiccup. A welcome relief after eight hours spent breathing in whatever cleaning products they use in the library combined the stress-sweat of a hundred other students. 

‘Wow, you must have seen something really traumatic. No wonder you were crying,’ he jokes, still speaking softly. 

‘Shut up,’ she mumbles into his shoulder. ‘I’m too tired for jokes.’ 

He laughs softly. ‘You may have come to the wrong place to get away from jokes.’ 

They walk backwards a few steps into the apartment and he pulls away to shut the door. She follows him along the hallway into the compact little kitchen/living room, most of which is taken up by a TV screen that’s far too big for such a small space. Spotting the loveseat tucked away in the corner of the room, she makes a beeline for it while he fills the kettle. She falls onto the couch in a heap. It’s old and the pleather is chipping off but at least it’s comfy and clean. 

Hiccup flicks the kettle on and turns around to lean against the kitchen counter. 

‘I’m making you nighttime tea so you can get some sleep and forget about all the awful things you saw.’ 

‘I didn’t see anything,’ she grumbles. ‘But the sock on the door painted a vivid picture.’ 

Hiccup wrinkles his nose. It’s adorable. ‘People still do that?’ 

She sighs, ‘Ruffnut does apparently. Can we talk about literally anything else? I feel like I’m going to lose my mind if I have to think about Ruffnut’s sex life for another second.’ 

‘Sure,’ he says, crossing his arms and swinging one foot over the other. ‘How was your day?’ 

Astrid groans and buries her face in her hands. 

‘That bad, hu?’ he quips but there’s a nervous edge to his voice, like he’s worried he’s said the wrong thing. 

‘No, I just-’ She feels tears coming again and fights them back. Slashing through her unwanted emotions like cutting back brush with a machete. Instead of tears, her words come spilling out in an uncontrollable rush. ‘I’m just so stressed and so tired and no matter how much I do I still feel like I’m behind and all I wanted to do was sleep and UGH!’ She finishes with an uncharacteristically dramatic flourish, throwing herself back onto the couch and crossing her arms over her face. It’s also something of a strategic move seeing as she feels like she might start sobbing again at any moment. She really, really doesn’t want to start crying in front of Hiccup. Face to face blubbering would be so much more mortifying than doing it over the phone. 

She can practically feel Hiccup smirking at her. 

‘Shut up,’ she says, voice muffled under her arms. 

‘I didn’t say anything!’ he protests. The kettle clicks and he turns back to grab a mug from the cupboard. 

She sits up, feeling a little silly for being so dramatic, and watches the back of his head as he pours her tea. He really has the most amazing hair. She remembers one of the first things she wanted to do when they started dating was run her hands through it. Truthfully, she’d been wanting to for a long time, even back when they were just friends. When she finally got to live out that particular fantasy it did not disappoint. She’s determined to find out what kind of shampoo he uses. 

He turns back with a red mug in hand and limps over to join her on the couch. She feels a pang of guilt for making him put his prosthetic on so late at night, his knee is probably killing him. 

‘Shouldn’t we be quiet for Fishlegs?’ she says, accepting the mug of hot tea and shuffling over to let Hiccup settle down beside her. 

‘Nah, when he’s out, he’s out,’ Hiccup says, throwing one arm over the back of the couch as he gets comfy. ‘I set the fire alarm off last week and he slept through the whole thing.’ 

‘That’s worrying.’ She blows on her tea but it’s far too hot so she sets it down on the coffee table. ‘How’d you manage to set it off this time?’ she asks, tone casual. She’s so used to Hiccup setting off alarms and breaking various appliances that these stories don’t even shock her anymore. If they ever move in together she knows she can kiss that security deposit goodbye. 

The thought catches her off guard, making her stomach do a little somersault and her heart flutter in an entirely embarrassing way. It’s way too soon to be thinking like that but she keeps catching herself picturing their future together. For a second she’s worried he’ll somehow be able to read her thoughts. Instead he just answers her question like a normal person. She attempts to keep her face blank as she smothers the image of the two of them unpacking boxes. 

‘Cooking experiment gone wrong,’ he says sheepishly. ‘I put the fire out quickly though.’ 

‘Well yeah,’ she says, rolling her eyes. ‘You have so much experience.’ 

He makes an indignant noise at the implication and bumps her shoulder playfully. She laughs and jostles him back. She’s still worn to the bone but at least she feels safe and happy here. Within a few minutes of just being around Hiccup she feels like her whole mood has shifted. It’s crazy how he can do that by just being himself, he doesn’t even have to try. Sometimes it feels like they’ve been dating for a few years, not a few weeks. 

Watching the steam curl in lazy twists from her mug of tea, she rests her head on his shoulder. He feels steady and warm and her heart melts a little when he leans his head back against hers. 

‘Thanks for letting me come over,’ she mumbles. ‘Midterms are a bitch and my roommate is worse.’ 

He chuckles and she feels it reverberate through his frame, his breath fanning across the top of her head. 

‘I don’t mind. I like having you here.’ He plants a kiss on the top of her head and wraps an arm round her shoulders. She snuggles in closer. 

‘I like being here,’ she says back. She really means it, this is the calmest she’s felt in weeks. 

‘Don’t fall asleep,’ he says. ‘I still need to make up the couch.’ 

Her mind goes blank with confusion. 

_Oh my god, is he really going to make her sleep on the couch? This was a mistake. A huge, embarrassing mistake. She should never have come here. God, what was she thinking?_

She jerks out from under his arm, whipping round to look at him. 

‘What?’ she stutters, unable to keep the hurt and confusion from her voice. 

Horror dawns on Hiccup’s face as he seems to catch on. His arms flail wildly as he tries to backtrack. 

‘Wait! No! Not for you! I meant for me! I meant I’d make up the couch for me!’ 

‘What the fuck, Hiccup!’ she growls, shoving him with the palm of her hand. ‘Don’t freak me out like that! I thought you were being a total asshole and instead you were just being a chivalrous idiot!’ As the words spill out, her anger dissolves into laughter. 

Hiccup stares at her, his face flushed in panic and confusion. 

‘I didn’t mean to imply- I mean- I don’t want you to feel uncomfortable-’ he stutters, his voice shrinking into a mumble. 

Still laughing she reaches forward and claps a hand over his mouth. ‘You’re such an idiot,’ she says between gasping breaths. His brows lift in question and she pulls her hand away to kiss him. 

Hiccup seems to be experiencing some form of whiplash. When she pulls back from the kiss he looks as though he’s still three steps behind. She can’t really blame him, she’s been cycling through a lot of conflicting emotions in a short span of time. He’s just the poor sap who’s been dragged along for the ride. 

‘So you... want me to sleep in my bed?’ he says hesitantly. ‘With you?’ 

Astrid laughs at his adorably furrowed brows. God bless this boy. She wouldn’t be able to find another one like him if she searched the whole of Berk campus and honestly, she never wants to. This idiot is her idiot. 

‘Hiccup, I’m your girlfriend,’ s he says, fixing him with a firm look. ‘You are allowed to sleep in the same bed as me.’ 

‘Oh,’ he says, blushing to his roots. ‘Ok, that’s- that’s cool.’ 

‘No funny business though,’ she says sternly. ‘I’m absolutely exhausted.’ 

‘I wouldn’t-’ he starts, panicked, but she stops him again, pulling him in by the back of his neck for another kiss. 

This time he isn’t too stunned to react, kissing her back in a way that makes her bones turn to jelly. She loves how his shoulders scrunch up to his ears when his hands come up to her face, gently cupping either side of her jaw. It’s a great kiss. She feels like weeks of pent up tension have just ebbed away into nothing. 

She doesn’t go far to take a breath, resting her forehead against his. ‘Maybe another night,’ she says with a smile, knowing full well how much she’s torturing him right now. 

He groans and slips his forehead from hers to rest on her shoulder. 

‘You’re enjoying this too much,’ he complains. 

She laughs and plants a kiss on the fabric of his T-shirt. ‘Probably, but tormenting you really cheers me up.’ 

‘I’m glad to be of service,’ he mumbles into her shoulder. 

She sits back and reaches for her cup of tea. Hiccup tucks a stray hair behind her ear as she takes a sip. It's really good; the tea and the hair tuck. 

‘Can I borrow pyjamas?’ she asks, cradling the mug between her hands. ‘I think I’m going to have to burn everything I own.’ 

He laughs. ‘Sure, I’ve got extra.’ 

She brings her cup of tea through to his room, overhearing Fishlegs’ soft snores as they creep down the corridor. The majority of the room is taken up by a small double bed. Along one wall a desk and chest of drawers are wedged in side by side so that she has to walk sideways to squeeze round the side of the bed, setting her mug on the crowded bedside table. Despite being a bit messy and crammed full of furniture, it’s a cosy and inviting room. It feels a little like being on the inside of Hiccup’s head, the walls covered in video game posters and sketches of various engineering projects. 

She grabs a pair of old cotton gym shorts from the chest of drawers, certain that they’ve never seen the inside of a gym, and tugs on a Star Wars T-shirt that’s a couple of sizes too big, leaving her own clothes in a neat pile on the desk. 

Hiccup waits in the hall while she’s changing and she teases him for it relentlessly as they talk quietly through the door. She gets it though: they’re not quite there yet. She’d much rather they got there naturally than rush either of them into anything they’re not ready for. Even if she can be a little impatient, there’s something exciting about this in-between stage. Each new boundary comes with its own awkwardness but the newness of their relationship makes every day feel like an adventure. 

It’s sweet that he wants to be a gentleman and respect her boundaries, but if he decides to keep up this whole chivalry bullshit she might have to put her foot down. There comes a point where it becomes ridiculous. Like giving up his bed to sleep on a couch so small that he’d have to curl up in the foetal position all night. 

‘You can come in now,’ she calls softly, sitting down on the edge of the bed as she begins to untangle her braid. 

Hiccup pushes the door open hesitantly and she rolls her eyes at him with a smile. He shuts it quietly behind him, hanging about at the foot of the bed. 

‘Loving your T-shirt collection, by the way,’ she teases, shaking out her hair. ‘I don’t think I’ve seen this one before.’ She nods to the one she’s wearing. On it R2-D2 and C3PO stand side by side, looking a little bit worse for wear, under a banner of text that used to say _These aren’t the droids you’re looking for,_ and now reads _Thes ren’t he oids you e ookin fo ._

‘Yeah, I usually sleep in the old ones,’ he says, scratching the back of his head the way he does when he’s nervous. ‘R2 was getting kind of crumbly.’ 

‘Still the best character though,’ she says, tucking her legs up onto the bed to sit cross-legged. 

Early in their friendship she’d been forced to watch every _Star Wars_ film in existence. It had been a bewildering odyssey through films of wildly varying quality. Hiccup and Fishlegs had intermittently screamed and lapsed into depressed silence throughout the prequels, and they’d had to endure Tuffnut’s Jar Jar Binks impression for months afterwards. But she’d enjoyed the original trilogy. Partly because of how much Hiccup loved it. He watched them all with a kind of childlike wonder, shushing them when his favourite scenes came on. 

She’d learned that she actually really liked sci-fi, having spent most of her teenage years thinking it was a genre for horny teenage boys who wanted to ogle at sexy alien women (although she still took issue with the whole Leia bikini scene). She’d also learned that no matter which film it was, Hiccup loved the robots more than the actual, human main characters. Because of course he did. 

‘After Leia of course,’ she adds. 

‘Of course,’ he agrees, knowing better than to argue with Astrid on this particular issue. He could at least concede that if he had to pick a non-mechanical character, Leia was the obvious choice. 

With a smug smile she scoots back to the headboard, tugging the covers over her and finally sinking into bed. The sheets smell like laundry detergent and Hiccup, just like her borrowed pyjamas. It’s not the night she’d planned for, but who needs her own bed when this one comes with a cute boyfriend and a hot mug of tea? Maybe she should thank Ruff for her inconvenient hook up. Then again, maybe she shouldn’t. Even if the night turned out ok in the end, she’s still going to hold a grudge for at least a fortnight. It’s only fair after she broke the roommate code of honour. 

Scooching upright, she reaches over to grab her half empty mug and takes a big sip, nearly finishing the tea. She hadn’t realised how uncomfortable her own bed was until she got into Hiccup’s. That’s dorm mattresses for you. Maybe she should stay over here more often. _Stop it, Astrid. Too soon._

‘Comfy?’ Hiccup says, watching her with a wry smile. 

‘Yes,’ she sighs, her eyes fluttering closed for a moment. ‘I’ve been waiting all day for this.’ 

‘You’ve been waiting all day to steal all my covers?’ He says, tilting his head. 

She shrugs and tugs the duvet closer around her. 

‘You know, I bet this whole thing was a ruse,’ he says, pretending to be put out as he crosses his arms. ‘I bet Ruffnut isn’t even with anyone.’ 

She smiles fondly, enjoying his theatrics. 

‘Shut up and get into bed,’ she says with an eye roll, lifting the covers with one hand. 

He smiles and shuffles round to the other side of the bed, sitting for a moment while he removes his prosthetic, before he swings round into bed beside her. She relinquishes some of her duvet nest to let him in, automatically cuddling into his side as much as she’s able to while balancing her cup of tea with one hand. He puts his arm around her and starts absently brushing small circles on her arm, just under the cuff of her sleeve. 

They slot together imperfectly; her elbow digging into his chest when she goes to drink her tea and their knees knocking together if one of them moves. It’s wonderful. 

‘So,’ she says after a moment of comfortable sleepy silence. ‘Was this a good reason to wake you up in the middle of the night, or…?’ 

Hiccup huffs a quiet laugh. ‘Well, considering last year I woke up to find Snotlout pouring mayonnaise on my face at 3am, I’d say this is a pretty good alternative.’ 

‘Oh my God!’ Astrid whips round to face him, twisting the covers around her as her hand flies to her face. She starts laughing so hard it becomes difficult to breath, her hand shakes as she quickly twists round to put down her cup of tea. ‘Why?’ she chokes out, shaking with laughter. 

Hiccup is half smiling, half grimacing at the memory. 

‘Tuffnut sold him some bad mushrooms and he seemed to think I was a hotdog or something. I’m not sure, he was pretty fuzzy on the details afterwards.’ 

She practically cackles, throwing her head back at the image of Hiccup batting mayonnaise out of his eyes. It would be embarrassing if he wasn’t smiling at her like she’s his favourite person in the world. 

’When did that happen?’ she says, her spasms of laughter starting to subside. 

‘Oh this was early in freshman year,’ he says with a vague hand gesture. ‘I hadn’t met you yet.’ 

Her eyebrows furrow. ‘But we had a class together, didn’t we?’ 

‘Yeah, we did,’ he says, playing with the hem of her sleeve. ‘But I hadn’t gotten up the courage to talk to you yet.’ 

‘Aww, were you just staring at me longingly across the classroom?’ she teases, resting her cheek on his shoulder. She’s joking. They were friends first, friends for a long time before things changed. Before she realised how much she liked him. 

‘Kind of, yeah,’ he says sheepishly, scratching the back of his head. 

‘Wait, really?’ She sits up again. ‘You liked me back then?’ 

Hiccup takes a breath and averts his eyes. ‘I liked you the second I saw you,’ he admits. 

That takes her by surprise. She can’t tell if he’s blushing in the dim light of his bedside lamp, but he looks embarrassed. He stares down at his hands and she can’t get a good look at his face for the mop of brown hair hanging over it. 

‘You did?’ she asks, still trying to catch his eye while he looks anywhere but at her. Her eyes soften as he starts to fidget. 

‘I mean, yeah.’ He looks up at the ceiling, waving one hand in a noncommittal shrug. ‘I know it’s kind of shallow but you were- are the prettiest girl in class.’ He stares at his hands again. ‘How could I not like you?’ he mumbles. 

She’s genuinely speechless. That was almost two years ago. This whole time he liked her and she had no idea? She feels like such an idiot. 

Then again, it took several months, a fatefully cursed frat party, and an intervention staged by her closest friends to get her to admit she liked Hiccup. And that was just admitting it to herself, acting on those feelings had been a whole other ball game. 

She feels a pang of regret somewhere in her gut. 

‘Do you ever feel like we wasted time?’ she asks, looking down as she twists a small section of bedsheet between her fingers. 

‘What do you mean?’ He finally looks up at her, brow furrowed with confusion. His awkwardness seems to melt away and suddenly it’s her turn to avoid eye contact and hide behind her hair. 

She sighs and forces herself to look up, pushing her hair out of her eyes with an awkward twitch. ‘I mean- I don’t know. We obviously liked each other. And for a really long time so-’ She feels her face heating up and looks away. ‘Why did we take so long to just… do something about it?’ She glances up through her bangs to catch his reaction. 

Hiccup opens his mouth and then closes it again. He seems to consider his words carefully. 

‘I guess I was scared,’ he says. ‘Scared you wouldn’t like me back and then we couldn’t be friends anymore. You’re-’ he pauses with a sigh, a small smile tugging at his lips. ‘You’re kind of my best friend, Astrid.’ 

She mirrors his half smile. ‘Except for Toothless,’ she corrects. 

‘Except Toothless’ he confirms. She knows she can’t compete with that shaggy ball of fluff. How are you supposed to win a friendship contest against the cutest and most loyal dog in existence? 

‘But I _did_ like you,’ she insists, getting the conversation back on track. 

‘Well that’s good to know,’ he says with a short laugh, trying to lighten the mood. 

Astrid frowns. ‘I just- I wish I’d said something. I wish I’d done something sooner. You must have been going crazy not knowing if I liked you back.’ 

She knows she was. The period of time between realising he wasn’t ‘just a friend’ to her and learning that he felt the same way, had been torture. She drove herself mad trying to guess what he was feeling. Even though her friends encouraged her to go for it, insisting she had nothing to be worried about, the fear of being rejected, of potentially screwing up their friendship forever, made her stomach turn and her mind go blank every time she tried to tell him. 

‘Kind of.’ He smiles and shrugs. ‘But that’s love I guess.’ 

Her heart stops, hands freezing in the sheets mid-twist. 

He realises what he’s said about half a second after she does and his face drops in horror. 

‘What did you say?’ she says faintly, feeling like someone just punched the air out of her lungs. 

‘Oh my god,’ he gasps, clamping his hands over his mouth. ‘I’m so sorry, that was- that was way too much- way too soon- I shouldn’t have said that- I-I didn’t- I mean I did- but just- just forget I said anything- I-' 

‘Hiccup,’ she snaps, grabbing his hands. She’s known him long enough to know he needs a firm hand when he starts babbling like this. He stops his panicked rambling and stares back at her like a rabbit in headlights, his eyes darting wildly between hers. 

His hands feel warm and familiar between hers. She runs her fingertips briefly over his knuckles, eyes flickering to follow the movement. Her heart is thundering in her ears. She looks up. 

‘You know I’m in love with you, right?’ 

His eyes go wide and blank, like his mind just short-circuited. His mouth drops open and snaps shut a few times as he struggles for a response. 

She smiles, feeling the weight of those words as they settle in her head, fingers still tracing the lines of his hands. She knows it’s true. She wouldn’t have said it if it wasn’t one hundred percent true. Even if she didn’t know it until just now. 

‘I don’t want to waste any more time,’ she says, just soft enough for him to hear. She reaches up to touch his face, her fingers coming to rest in the hollow behind his ear, the pad of her thumb stroking the soft hair that curls just above his jaw. 

His eyes drop to her lips and she leans forward, meeting him in the middle. 

She can’t help but think about the first time she kissed him. It has to be one of the best impulsive decisions she’s ever made. It’s definitely the only one that didn’t come with any regrets or bad consequences later down the line. That is, if you don’t count having to listen to their friends making kissing noises every time they entered a room. She’ll never forget how shocked he looked, like he was waiting for someone to pinch him and wake him up from what was obviously a dream, dragging him back to reality. As good as that first kiss had felt; and it had felt amazing, like, flying-through-the-clouds amazing; this felt a hundred times better. 

However, despite how deliriously happy she was right now, she’s still faced with the bone-deep weariness of studying all day. A fresh wave of exhaustion hits her as the adrenaline of this emotional rollercoaster wears off. She’s suddenly so tired she can barely open her eyes when she pulls back from the kiss. 

‘I’m sorry,’ Hiccup teases. ‘Am I boring you?’ 

She frowns and squints at him through drooping eyelids. ‘No,’ she grumbles. Her eyes starting to shut against her will. 

‘Ok, I think it’s time for you to go to sleep now,’ Hiccup chuckles. 

Astrid scowls at his tone, resenting being treated like an over-tired child who needs to be tucked in for the night. But then again, she’s not about to argue when there’s a perfectly good bed just waiting to be slept in. 

She flops down like her body is deflating, melting into the mattress and snuggling into the pillow. Hiccup shuffles down next to her, his body curled in towards hers. She catches him looking at her with soft green puppy dog eyes as she begins to lose the war with consciousness. He reaches out and she feels him gently brush the bangs from her eyes. She lets out a small satisfied breath. 

‘I love you too, you know?’ he says softly. His breath tickles her face. 

‘I know you do,’ she mumbles, eyes closed. ‘You already told me, idiot. Remember?’ 

He laughs quietly. ‘I love it when you call me an idiot.’ 

She exhales a sleepy sound of amusement. ‘And I love it when you let me sleep in your incredibly comfy bed,’ she says, breathing in the heady smell of clean sheets and boyfriend. ‘In fact, I think I love this bed almost as much as I love you.’ 

Now that she’s said it the first time, the hardest time, the words seem to slip out easily, almost casually. Like this is something she tells him all the time. She makes a mental note to start doing that. 

‘Almost?’ he asks. She can hear the smile in his voice. 

‘It’s a close call,’ she mumbles, her words growing clumsy. 

The last thing she remembers thinking before she drifts off into blissfully dreamless sleep, is that she’ll be buying Ruffnut ‘thank you’ drinks for the rest of her life.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!
> 
> If you feel like leaving kudos and a comment I'd really love to hear what you thought! I just want to chat to people about how much I love this ship and this ridiculous squad of idiots. They make me very happy and I'm hoping to publish more Hiccstrid fics in the future. There may or may not be a multi-chapter fic in the works, but you didn't hear that from me ; )


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